EDR vs MDR vs MSSP for a 50-Person Company With One IT Generalist: What Actually Makes Sense
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The vendor comparison guides for EDR, MDR, and MSSP are written for audiences with dedicated security staff. They compare detection fidelity, MITRE ATT&CK coverage, and SOAR integration depth — useful criteria for a 5-person security team, largely irrelevant if you are a single IT person whose security responsibilities exist alongside managing the network, onboarding new employees, handling helpdesk tickets, and keeping the VoIP system running.
This guide is written for that person. It covers what each option realistically costs, how much time each option realistically requires, and the decision criteria that actually matter for a 50-person organization without a dedicated security function.
What you actually need from a security solution
Before comparing options, define the requirement. A 50-person company without a security team needs a solution that:
Detects and stops the most common threats — ransomware, credential phishing, and business email compromise — without requiring daily analyst attention. Alerts you when something requires action, without overwhelming you with alerts you cannot investigate. Provides someone else to call when a serious incident occurs. Is maintainable within the hours you actually have available for security.
This is a different requirement than what a 50-person security team needs. Evaluate options against what you need, not against what enterprise buyers need.
Option 1: Standalone EDR
A standalone EDR (CrowdStrike Falcon Go, SentinelOne Singularity Commercial, or Microsoft Defender for Business) provides endpoint detection and response on every managed device.
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Option 2: Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
MDR providers (Arctic Wolf, Huntress, Binary Defense, Expel) manage an EDR or SIEM platform on your behalf and provide 24/7 human analyst coverage. When an alert fires, their SOC investigates and calls you only when action is required.
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Option 3: Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP)
An MSSP provides broader managed security services beyond endpoint detection — typically including SIEM management, firewall management, vulnerability scanning, and sometimes compliance reporting.
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Decision framework
The decision between these three options for a single-IT-person shop comes down to three factors: budget ceiling, available response time, and compliance requirements.
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The bottom line
For a 50-person company with one IT generalist, MDR is the right answer in most cases — specifically Huntress or a comparable SMB-focused MDR provider. It provides 24/7 monitoring without requiring you to manage an alert queue, costs less per month than a single day of ransomware downtime, and dramatically reduces the probability of a security incident going undetected for days because you were handling other IT priorities. Standalone EDR is the right answer only if you have genuine capacity to review alerts weekly and a backup response plan for after-hours incidents. MSSP is the right answer only when compliance requirements or managed network security needs make the additional cost justified.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between MDR and MSSP?
MDR (Managed Detection and Response) focuses specifically on threat detection and incident response — monitoring endpoints and environments for threats, investigating alerts, and escalating confirmed incidents. MSSP (Managed Security Service Provider) provides a broader range of managed security services including SIEM management, firewall management, vulnerability scanning, and compliance reporting. MDR is the focused, typically lower-cost option; MSSP is the broader, typically higher-cost option. For most SMBs, MDR provides more security value per dollar than MSSP.
Is Microsoft Defender for Business sufficient for a 50-person company?
Microsoft Defender for Business (included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium) provides solid endpoint protection for SMBs: next-generation antivirus, EDR capabilities, attack surface reduction rules, and basic threat and vulnerability management. It is genuinely sufficient for the threat scenarios most 50-person companies face if you have capacity to review alerts weekly. Its primary limitation is that someone at your organization must actively review and respond to alerts — it does not include the 24/7 managed SOC coverage that MDR providers like Huntress add.
How much time does managing an EDR actually take?
For a 50-person environment with an EDR deployed on all endpoints, realistic time requirements: 1-2 hours per week for alert review and triage, 2-4 hours per month for policy management and EDR updates, and variable time for incident investigation (minor incidents: 2-4 hours; major incidents: 20-40+ hours). The weekly alert review is non-negotiable — EDR alerts that accumulate for weeks without review provide no security value. If you cannot commit to weekly review, MDR provides that function.
What questions should I ask an MDR provider before signing up?
Key questions for MDR evaluation: What is your escalation process and how quickly do you contact me when an incident is confirmed? What environments do you monitor (endpoint only, or also Microsoft 365, cloud infrastructure, network)? What is your average time from alert to confirmed incident determination? Do you manage remediation or only notify? What is my after-hours contact method? Do you have any carrier relationships that reduce my cyber insurance premium? And critically: what is excluded from coverage — many MDR contracts exclude specific platforms or require additional modules for cloud or identity coverage.
Sources & references
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